The Japanese and Ecology - a contradictory tale of mind-bending lunacy.

The cultural and historical wealth of Kyoto spared it during WWII, not just from firebombing, but also from a nuclear attack. With such a background of preservation, it's fitting that the treaty which bears the city's name should have been negotiated there. Of course, the existence of the Kyoto Protocol doesn't represent an immediate change in behaviour in the country of its birth, but there is an awareness, albeit one with a slight limp.

In an effort to keep up with the rest of the world, during the Meiji period, Japan industrialised with alarming rapidity. Today, although it's roughly the same size as the UK, Japan produces more carbon emissions per capita than Britain, however things are apparently much better in Kawasaki now then they were in the '70's, when acid rain was a frequent problem. Walking by the heavily industrial docks in the bay, one can imagine what it must have been like before environmental issues were taken seriously.

Waste disposable in Japan is a pernickety, but necessary affair, requiring one to separate combustible from non-combustible waste. All well & good, but the amount of unnecessary non-combustible waste produced is staggering. I'm inspired to write this because a bottle of ketchup I bought came in a plastic pouch, and this isn't an isolated incident. Many products you buy in Japan come with layer upon layer of plastic wrapping. You will automatically be given a plastic bag for the smallest item you buy, regardless of how many others you might be carrying.

For a country with little in the way of natural resources, the consumption is huge. Once was enough, but the amount of times I've walked past a stationary car with the engine running and a man asleep at the wheel has me fuming. My first trip to Shinjuku had me agog at the thought of how much electricity the place must use in one night, but that pales into comparison next to waribashi, or disposable chopsticks.

Every year, Japan uses some 25 billion pairs of waribashi. Originally they were manufactured by Japanese companies until the '80's, when a joint Japan-China venture managed to produce them at a lower cost. Today, 97% of waribashi come from China. Recently however, China has imposed a 5% tax on chopsticks in an effort to curb de-forestation. If that wasn't enough, chopstick exporters have responded to that move by placing a 30% increase on their prices, a planned additional 20% currently pending. China is even making noises about completely stopping waribashi exports as early as 2008.

Ichiro Fukuoka, director of Japan Chopsticks Import Association, has said
"We're not in an emergency situation yet, but there has been some impact."
Alternative sources are being looked at, such as bamboo (which grows vigorously) or other suppliers of wood such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Russia. The obvious solution, to me at any rate, is to dismiss disposable chopsticks altogether, buy enough re-useable pairs for the amount of customers an establishment expects of an evening and wash the buggers.

Mayumi Ito, a spokeswoman for Seven & I Holdings Co., owner of 7-Eleven convenience stores has commented that
"We provide chopsticks only to customers who ask for them." I would like to categorically state that that is utter codswallop.

Due to the uncompromising Japanese climate, with periods of intense humidity, it was common for temples to be completely re-built every year, as the original structures would gradually decay. Naturally, this practice is rare in today's environmentally conscious age, although the Grand Ise Shrine in Mie prefecture still enjoys this makeover once every twenty years. Although Shinto places a great deal of emphasis on living in harmony with nature, there are still many renewal and purification rituals that take their toll on resources such as water and wood.

On a microcosmic level, I can see this behaviour in the students. If I point out a spelling mistake of a single letter or period, the entire sentence will be erased and begun afresh. Whether this is representative of a broader Japanese attitude or just teenage procrastination is anybodies guess.